TOKYO: According to latest statistics released by Japan’s Ministry of Finance (MoF), the country’s imports of stainless steel scrap dropped significantly during 2015, when compared with the previous year.
The imports during 2015 witnessed sharp drop of 27.6% when compared with the previous year. The stainless steel scrap imports by Japan totaled 89,742 tons in 2015. Japan had imported 124,076 tons of stainless steel scrap during the entire year 2014.
During the month of Dec ’15 alone, the country imported 7,247 tons of stainless steel scrap. The monthly imports in Dec ’15 were down by 17.3% over the previous month. The Japanese stainless steel scrap imports had totaled 8,767 tons during November last year.
The largest exporter stainless steel scrap to Japan in Dec ’15 was South Korea. The exports from South Korea totaled 4,029 tons. The Japanese imports from South Korea dropped marginally by 2.5% when compared with the imports of 4,132 tons during Nov ‘15. In second place was Taiwan with total exports of 1,360 tons. The stainless steel scrap exports from Taiwan plunged heavily by 10.1% month-on-month from 1,512 tons.
The imports from South Korea and the US accounted for 56% and 19% respectively of the total imports by the country during December. In third place was the US with 772 tons. The imports from the US plummeted by 57.8% over the previous month.
